Kansas Family Reunited With Dog That Was Mistakenly Flown to Japan

2018-03-16 21

A family in Wichita, Kansas, has been reunited with their dog after United Airlines mistakenly shipped it to Japan.

Irgo, a ten-year-old German Shepherd, was reunited with the Swindle family on Thursday, March 15. Just two days earlier, Irgo was mistakenly sent over 10,000 miles away to Japan.

The family was flying with Irgo from Portland to Kansas City on March 13. When they went to pick up Irgo at Kansas City International Airport, they were given a Great Dane instead and found Irgo had been put on a flight to Japan.

According to local media, United Airlines told the Swindles that they didn’t know how the mistake happened, but that the dogs’ kennels were similar.

United Airlines apologized for the mix-up in a statement released to local media.

“An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible. We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened,” the statement read.

According to Kara Swindle, Irgo was flown back from Japan by private charter and was treated “like a king.”

A clip of the family’s emotional reunion with Irgo shared to Facebook on March 15 had earned over 1,200 views at the time of writing. Credit: Kara Swindle via Storyful